What last night's win revealed about this Rockets team

What last night's win revealed about this Rockets team

The Rockets gave fans a lot to be excited about in their win last night. While the Rockets didn’t have to face the reigning MVP, Russell Westbrook, a lot of the Thunder’s normal rotation including stars Paul George and Carmelo Anthony did join in on the fun. Big men Nene and Tarik Black did not play Tuesday night but this gave Mike D’Antoni a chance to play around with some small ball rotations. We’ve broken our analysis down below:

The Chris Paul and James Harden Experiment

Chris Paul and James Harden worked well together to distribute the ball and hit teammates in their shooting pockets (Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports)

If last night showed us anything, it showed us this experiment is off to one hell of a start. Paul and Harden began the game but Paul saw more time off-ball while the two were on the floor together. Somewhere around 5 or 6 minutes in, Paul was subbed out and Eric Gordon became the secondary guard. This trend continued where Harden was subbed out for Paul and Gordon stayed as the secondary. Midway through the second quarter the two played together again and Harden closed out the first half. It seems that this pattern of alternating the two should stick in the regular season as each were able to get hot as playmakers setting up consecutive easy looks as the primary distributor.

As far as chemistry, there weren’t many concerns on my end about if the two will fit together. In fact, Paul seems to have already embraced the idea of being a triple-threat from the wing and corner when playing off-ball. The two combined for 27 points and 17 assists in limited minutes. Chris Paul often looked like the best player on the floor because he made a huge impact, especially in the second quarter. He even made Harden that much more effective simply by giving the defense another ball handler to worry about.

Switching on Defense

The rotation of Trevor Ariza, P.J. Tucker and Luc Mbah a Moute did a great job switching between Paul George and Carmelo Anthony (Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports)

It was an incredible sight to see as Trevor Ariza, P.J. Tucker and Luc Mbah a Moute all took turns switching between the 2-3-4 Thunder players. All three of these guys are big enough to guard power forwards but quick enough to stay with two-guards. It’s really remarkable how quickly these guys were able to come together to fill these slots and learn how to switch onto defenders seamlessly. Tucker and Mbah a Moute were specifically brought in to help with this and they showed exactly how they would help last night. For example, Carmelo started the game hot with Ryan Anderson playing on him early. Once P.J. Tucker came into the game, he used his big body to complete disrupt his rhythm and force him to take step-backs and off-balance shots rather than easy pull-ups and one-dribble jumpers. The NBA is full of elite scorers who can play on the wing and all three of these guys figure to be a major factor moving forward. While it was largely done because of the absence of Nene and Black, the Rockets were very effective with a Harden-Gordon-Ariza-Mbah a Moute-Tucker small ball lineup. The positional versatility is a welcome sight in Houston.

I tweeted about Zhou Qi about eight times in his four minutes of playing time – that should tell you something (no, not that I’m a crazy fan). Zhou was incredibly effective, albeit catching fouls like the flu in winter, but who would’ve thought that a guy with a seven-foot-eight wingspan could alter shots just by raising his arms? Groundbreaking. Anyways, Zhou did exactly that and also showed his mobility by running down the court and rotating to the perimeter for open looks from distance – even hitting one. He should absolutely have a roster spot though it would be helpful to let him develop and get playing time in Rio Grande first.

Isaiah Taylor was the first non-rotational player to sub into the game during the fourth quarter and started off with a nice dime off the pick-and-roll but didn’t do much after. He wound up playing the most of any non-rotational player though veteran Bobby Brown definitely made much more of an impact on the game. Troy Williams showed solid effort and Chris Johnson, while in the game for seven minutes, wasn’t very effective. As of now, it seems as if Zhou, Brown, Williams and Taylor hold the upper hand for their shot at making the team.